Something unusual is happening to Canadian resorts. For the first time in years, the demand picture has shifted decisively in their favour — and it has very little to do with anything the properties themselves did.
Canadians are staying home in numbers nobody forecast. Surveys through 2026 have consistently put the share of Canadians avoiding US travel somewhere between six and seven in ten, while the overwhelming majority are planning at least one domestic trip this year. At the same time, the exchange rate continues to make Canada an unusually good value for American visitors. Two demand streams, pointing at the same beds.
The question for owners is not whether the demand is real. It is whether your property is in any shape to hold onto it once the guests arrive.
Why This Window Will Not Stay Open
Canada’s tourism sector is on track for visitor spending in the region of $141 billion, up roughly 6% year over year, with a meaningful share of that coming from spending that would previously have gone abroad. Mountain towns in British Columbia, Ontario cottage country, Quebec’s cultural cities, the Alberta parks and coastal Atlantic Canada are all reporting strong domestic interest.
Here is the part owners tend to miss. A demand surge driven by circumstance is a one-time opportunity to convert first-time guests into repeat ones. If a family visits your resort this summer because they decided against Florida, you have exactly one stay to make them want to come back regardless of the exchange rate. A dated room does not just cost you a review — it costs you the entire future value of that relationship.
That is the actual argument for renovating now. Not that construction is cheap, because it is not. It is that the guests you are converting this year are worth more than the guests you will be trying to attract in three years’ time.
The New Guest Mix, and What It Wants
The domestic travel boom has not simply increased volume — it has changed who is walking through the door. Three shifts matter for design.
1. Longer Stays and Multi-Generational Groups
A domestic road trip guest stays longer than a flight-in guest, and often arrives as an extended family rather than a couple. That changes the brief considerably:
- Connecting and flexible rooms – Demand for interconnecting keys and sofa beds has risen sharply. Suites that can be configured for four to six people book out first.
- Real storage – A guest staying five nights unpacks. A guest staying one does not. Drawer space and hanging space stop being a nicety at about night three.
- In-room food capability – Even a kettle, a bar fridge and somewhere clean to set down a takeaway container changes how a family experiences a longer stay.
- Somewhere to put wet, dirty gear – Skis, hiking boots, paddleboards and beach bags. Properties that solve this well are remembered for it.
2. Public Spaces Are Doing More Work
Longer stays mean guests spend more waking hours in your building. A lobby that functions as a pass-through will feel inadequate by the second afternoon, particularly in bad weather.
Resorts capturing this demand well are zoning their public areas properly: somewhere for children that is not the middle of the lobby, somewhere quiet for an adult with a book, somewhere with power for the guest who is working two days of their week away, and a food and beverage space that does not empty out at 2pm. Our post on designing public spaces in hotels goes deeper into how this differs by property type.
3. Guests Want the Place to Feel Like Where It Is
This is the strongest through-line in the domestic travel shift. People choosing Canada over a US trip are not looking for a generic resort experience — they are looking for the Muskoka one, the Okanagan one, the Cape Breton one. Interiors that could be anywhere are a wasted opportunity in a year when the destination is the reason for the booking.
That does not mean themed decor. It means local materials, commissioned work from regional artists, a palette drawn from the landscape outside the window, and the restraint to let the view be the feature when there is one.
Where to Spend First
Most resorts cannot renovate everything at once, particularly with construction costs where they are. If you are prioritizing, this is the order we would argue for:
- Guest rooms first – They drive the review score, and the review score drives the rate. Nothing else has the same return.
- Then the arrival sequence – Lobby, reception and the first thirty seconds. It sets the expectation for everything that follows.
- Then food and beverage – Longer stays mean more meals on site. An unappealing dining room sends revenue into town every evening.
- Then amenity and wellness spaces – Increasingly a booking decision rather than a bonus, especially for the multi-night domestic guest.
- Corridors and back of house last – Necessary, but no guest ever chose a resort because of the corridor carpet.
Pro Tip: Phase around your shoulder season rather than your slowest month. Being closed in the slowest month costs you little, but being under construction during a strong shoulder season in a year like this one costs you a great deal.
Measuring Whether It Worked
Renovation ROI at a resort is often discussed vaguely and measured badly. If you are going to spend the money, decide in advance what success looks like and capture the baseline before construction starts:
- Average daily rate on renovated versus unrenovated keys – The cleanest measure available, and the reason phased renovations are worth tracking room by room.
- Review score movement – Track the sub-scores, not just the headline. Cleanliness and comfort respond quickly to a guest room renovation.
- Length of stay and repeat booking rate – The metric that tells you whether you converted the circumstantial guest into a returning one.
- On-site spend per guest – If you renovated food and beverage or amenity spaces, this is where the return shows up first.
- Shoulder season occupancy – Peak weeks sell themselves. A stronger property fills the weeks either side of them.
Capture twelve months of baseline data before you start. Almost nobody does, and it is the reason so many owners cannot say with confidence whether their last renovation paid for itself.
Yes, Costs Are Up. Renovate Anyway.
Tariffs have pushed construction and FF&E costs meaningfully higher, and it would be dishonest to pretend that is not a real constraint. There are ways to source around a good deal of it. But the arithmetic still works in favour of acting, for a straightforward reason: your revenue side has improved at the same time your cost side has. Occupancy and rate at Canadian resorts are stronger than they have been in years. A renovation funded against that revenue is a very different proposition from one funded against a flat demand forecast.
The properties that will regret this period are the ones that treated a demand surge as a reason to defer investment rather than fund it.
Final Thoughts
Canadian resorts have a genuine, and probably temporary, advantage right now. Domestic travellers are choosing home and American visitors are getting unusual value. Both groups are forming an opinion about your property this season, and that opinion will outlast the circumstances that brought them here. Renovating now is how you make sure the opinion is a good one.
Thinking about a resort renovation and want to make the most of this window? Lesley Wong Interiors designs guest rooms, lobbies and amenity spaces for resorts across Canada. Contact us today to start the conversation.
